The purpose of the MBRS SCORE program at Barry University (BU) is to increase the research productivity and the competitiveness of participating departments and funded faculty. The program's goals and specific measurable objectives are: [unreadable] [unreadable] Goal 1: Strengthen and increase the research productivity and competitiveness of participating faculty in order to develop a competitive program. Measurable objectives include (i) Increase presentations at scientific meetings by 75% (ii) Increase presentations at regional meetings by 60% (iii) Increase number of refereed publications by 50% (iv) Increase research collaboration with non-Barry scientists by 100% (v) Increase number of grant applications by 50%. [unreadable] [unreadable] Goal 2: In their funded research, each participating faculty member will reach one or more milestones that are recognized by scientific publication. Measurable objectives include (i) Each faculty member will have at least two refereed publications over the funding period (ii) Each faculty member will submit at least one grant application over the funding period (iii) Each faculty member will establish formative, quantitative evaluation measures appropriate to their research topic. [unreadable] [unreadable] Goal 3: Improve the research capability and infrastructure for Barry and participating departments. Measurable objectives include: (i) Increase in-house seminars by 50% (ii) Maintain annual Science Faculty colloquium for research presentations (iii) Add one additional funded investigator (iv) Hire at least 90% of funded technicians who are underrepresented minority students in biomedical research (v) Over the funding period increase to 12 the grants submitted by non-funded faculty to non-MBRS grantors (vi) Increase presentations at meetings by non-funded faculty to an average of 6 per year. [unreadable] [unreadable] These goals reflect the mission of MBRS SCORE, so meeting these goals will contribute to fulfill that mission. The projects of Drs. Handel-Fernandez, Hu and Packert in this application are in full accord with these program goals. Through the successful research of the funded investigators, a competitive research program will be further developed that achieves the goals of the MBRS SCORE program. The program employs a variety of quantitative metrics to provide formative and summative evaluation. These range from counts of publications to measures of participation in formative activities like presentations and scientific meetings. [unreadable] [unreadable]